'rum' on Serious Eats

A handful of rice and a whole lot of milk make magic in the oven. A whole vanilla pod flavors the pudding, and the entire thing is topped with a cherry syrup spiked with rum. It's comfort in a dish. More

A healthy helping of citrus zest, lime marmalade, and a dash of white rum make up the tropical trifecta of flavors in this easy, breezy tart. A dead-simple pastry crust and hearty sprinkling of toasted almonds are a toothsome, well-suited contrast. More

It's probably my southern Italian roots, but I'm a huge, huge sucker for rum-soaked sweets. (Southern Italian roots or nascent alcoholism. Eh. Wash.) This cake is a hybrid of my Christmas rum cake and a Caribbean rum cake, and I think it's one of the best boozy desserts around. More

Raisins are soaked in dark rum for up to 2 days and are churned into a base that seems fairly bland, with faint accents of brown sugar and cinnamon. After setting up for a full 24 hours, though, the rum flavor leaches into the ice cream itself and the bite of pure rum in the raisins mellows out considerably. More

A far cry from your standard apple crumble, Apple Brown Betty is the real deal. This version comes from The Brown Betty Cookbook, and features a homemade rum sauce, a 3-apple filling, as well as a potato bread crust. More

Torta de pan—bread pudding—is not a novel concept to the dessert repertoire of many countries; in Latin America it is an everyday and very casero (homey) preparation. Variations and interpretations are abundant but not exhausting, surely due to the ease of its assembly and its always pleasing result. The custard-soaked and baked dessert is also a sensible way to salvage stale bread scraps that would otherwise find themselves tossed out with the fish guts and vegetable parings. More

Marble cakes are homey and festive at the same time. A marble cake looks slick when you slice into it and reveal the delicate pattern of the two batters swirled together. Rather than dividing the base batter in half, I like to remove about a third of it and add the chocolate.
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Remember this SNL sketch back in the Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon era? The two were hosts of "Delicious Dish," an NPR-parodying radio show and in this yuletide-themed sketch from 1998, Alec Baldwin played their guest Pete Schweddy, the owner of Season's Eatings Bakery. It's been a while, but an SNL classic like that isn't forgotten. Ben & Jerry's just decided to release a Schweddy Balls flavor, now available nationwide. More

Jeni Britton Bauer's approach to ice cream making is cerebral, wide ranging, and smart. Instead of limiting herself to the typical pastry pantry of sweets, Britton Bauer raids the savory kitchen as well as the liquor cabinet for ice cream inspiration. It's that sort of forward thinking that makes for incredible combinations like this Celery Ice Cream with Candied Ginger and Rum-Plumped Golden Raisins from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home. More

Until pie replaces pancakes, I'll have to make do with this jam. Filled with tart Granny Smith apples, juicy raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and a healthy shot of dark rum, it tastes exactly like my favorite holiday apple pie. It's insanely good on cornbread and pretty darn delicious on plain old toast, too. More